Stoneforge Of Awesome

Or how I loved to tutor for Jitte, without any effort and getting it into play when you least suspect it.

When the Zendikar block set Worldwake was released there were in fact a few key cards I wanted out of the set.

1. Jace, The Mind Sculptor
2. Lodestone Golem
3. Stoneforge Mystic

Remembering how I looked at the list, I think to myself hey now that isn’t too bad. When I look at the list now, I think to myself, that is a punishing list of cards.

I want to talk about specifically the awesomeness of Stoneforge Mystic. Since after all unless you have been living under a rock for the past year+ you know how well Jace is and don’t need me to talk about it.

Stoneforge Mystic on the other hand, really had no place for the longest time. She saw play mostly outside of her standard format for a while, and she was a “junkish” rare, however like most things in magic sometimes a cards potential will not be met, until there is something else it can do. or something worthwhile it can do for current metagames.

In Standard she is becoming a card that mets the requirements of being powered up. In the recent Pro-Tour Paris, 7 out of the top 8 decks ran Stoneforge Mystic and why not? as I said earlier she tutors a sword or better.

Mike Flores the infamous magic columnist and theorist (seriously listen to this guy) listed Stoneforge Mystic as the 2nd most popular card in standard on StarCity Games.

2. Stoneforge Mystic

I’m not sure which is more shocking — the fact that a creature other than Primeval Titan is actually the best creature in the format — or that Osyp Lebedowicz was right.

When Worldwake came out, Osyp asked me if he was crazy for wanting to play Stoneforge Mystic in Extended… to which I just rolled my eyes. A year later, the little 1/2 for two might not be dominating Extended, exactly, but you would be hard-pressed to prove that any other creature is more effective at winning games of Magic: The Gathering in the Standard format.

Stoneforge Mystic is what put Caw-Go (now CawBlade) over the top — it moved it from “good” to “great” to “one of the all-time greats.” Obviously, that came with the introduction of Sword of Feast and Famine (Spoilers! Number Six! Spoilers!), but hey — the changes brought by Mirrodin Besieged seems to have farther-reaching impacts than just the new cards themselves.

In addition to CawBlade, Stoneforge Mystic is one of the few sources of card advantage to the highly competitive Boros beatdown deck. The Mystic is not just a Sword- (or Swords-) factory. Adventuring Gear seems to be stock, making everyone a Steppe Lynx or Plated Geopede; in addition, Vincent Lemoine’s version can go huge with Bonehoard, and the mighty Paul Rietzl still packs a Basilisk Collar in the sideboard for his Cunning Sparkmage combo.

When the top two contenders in the Pro Tour — decks as diametrically opposed as U/W Control and Boros beatdown — are starting off with the same two-drops, you know that there is some unconditional card quality going on.

So what does this little standard card have to do with anything or more or less with Legacy?

Quiet simply put, it’s a fetch land for equipment, get that jitte out of your deck, and let that little mystic put it into play for you instead of having it Force of Will’ed. While I would like to think most Legacy players had this figured out a long time ago, sometimes it is nice to review things.

and now some preview cards.

Yesterday on daily mtg, there was a short preview of two possible cards to be released in the last set of the Scars of Mirrodin block. Will it either be New Phyrexia, or Mirrodin Pure. either way I don’t care. lets see some cards.

also, want to check out some magic super rares? then head on over to here